Faults:

Sunroof opened on its own; had to be adjusted.

Headliner rattled.

Center console rattled.

Engine idled rough on the first start of the day.

Transmission shifted rough.

Ergonomics are bad.

Infotainment system glitches.

General Comments:

Averaged 31 MPG on 87 octane fuel.

No wind noise, but quite a lot of road noise.

Uncomfortable seat bolsters on the bottom of the seat.

Not good for cornering; the turning radius is too big.

Stereo sounded great, but faded out for a second sporadically when using XM and USB.

Navigation system has pretty display, however it is hard to use compared to an inexpensive Garmin Nuvi. Wouldn't work for a while one day, too hard to find points of interest, and entering addresses has to be exact. Can't type in main street if there is a north and south main, etc.

Ford service department at both dealerships I went to lied about what work they performed.

The car rattled like a 10 year old Pinto.

Faults:

Sync (NOT the Sync Touch) gets confused sometimes and could be faster to respond.

GPS directions could be easier to follow.

Steering requires a bit too much constant back and forth effort at high speeds (75mph+).

General Comments:

Very nice drive.

**FUN!**

Would easily buy again.

Dealer was fantastic.

Great gas mileage.

Faults:

This was a car that we rented on a trip, so nothing went wrong.

General Comments:

We rented this Focus on a week-long trip, which covered about 500 miles. I always try to rent a different car each time, and so I figured I would try this one out for size.

First of all, in general I'd say the car was solidly built and well thought out. The fuel economy seemed reasonable as we achieved at least 30 MPG for the entire trip. The amount of "goodies" the car came with was also surprisingly generous for a compact econo car.

That said... this wasn't my favorite car I've driven. The model we rented was the hatchback model and there were some serious blind spots, which was partially remedied by the car's mirrors. Still - it was a bit concerning on the freeway when we changed lanes. I felt that the car's acceleration wasn't exactly satisfying. It, like many cars I've driven over the past few years, seems to have a pronounced lag from the time the pedal is pressed to when the engine actually responds. I felt that the car was a tad sluggish. Handling was decent. The braking was far too tight and sensitive.

I feel Ford really needs to work out their Sync system better, because I never was able to figure out how it worked. My phone does a better job of understanding what it is I'm trying to say. It seems like the only way Sync works is to know beforehand what commands you can use, which to me makes it a little useless. In fact, the overall layout and UI of the dash was confusing. The dash and center console are split up into lots of little separate segments, and trying to get an overall view of the current status was difficult. The controls were not obvious. It took me a long time to figure how how to get the cruise control to work. The wipers were totally confusing as well. Simply put, the controls were not very intuitive. To be fair, I would likely figure things out eventually. But I've rented other cars in the past where it was instantly clear what did what on the dash.

But overall, I'd say that the Focus is a good value vehicle, which really and truly offers a neck and neck competitive choice when it comes to econo cars. Both foreign and domestic.